I know I’m not breaking any new ground by telling you salad is where it’s at during the heat of summer. Folks like Julia Sherman aka Salad for President and Alison Roman have been really going into overdrive with their summer creations. It’s cheap, it’s easy, and you don’t have to turn on a heat source.
What is novel in salad land—at least to me—are salad bundles. I made up this name after trying a more decadent version at a restaurant opening last week. Not only was it nice to be among the unmasked masses to dine, but I found it to be very inspiring for my inexpensive home cooking as well.
With the exception of the frisée, everything you see here is from my garden. I piled the leaves atop each other, interspersing spicy micro greens, fronds of fennel, tarragon, and basil and then secured the bundle with a green onion stem. Et voila!
Now for the dressing, er, dipping sauce. I learned a trick recently that to heighten the flavor of any dressing you want your vinegar to match at least one ingredient. Makes sense. I made strawberry top vinegar last week so smashing in a strawberry after I pulverized my garlic in my suribachi was easy. What a word salad that was, forgive me.
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Summer Strawberry Vinaigrette
Serves 2-4
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Ingredients:
One garlic clove
One large strawberry
2 T Strawberry top vinegar
6 T EVOO
Maldon Salt
Pepper
Directions:
Pulverize garlic.
Cover garlic with vinegar and and salt and let sit for 15 minutes. Transfer to a separate bowl.
Smash strawberry and pour in garlic/vinegar mixture
Strain mixture into original bowl.
Add EVOO and hand whisk.
Add pepper and divide in individual serving bowls for dipping.